A. Philip Randolph African-American labor leader who organized the 1941 march on Washington that pressured FDR to issue an executive order banning discrimination in defense industries

allotment checks check that a soldier’s wife received from the government; amounting to a percentage of her husband’s pay

Atlantic Charter 1941 joint statement issued by FDR and Churchill to formulate American and British postwar aims of international economic and political cooperation

Axis powers coalition of nations that opposed the Allies in WWII; first Germany and Italy and later Japan






Battle of Britain series of battles between British and German planes fought over Britain August-October 1940, during which English cities suffered heavy bombing

Battle of Leyte Gulf 1944 naval battle in which American forces near the Philippines crushed Japanese air and sea power

Battle of Stalingrad battle for the Russian city that was besieged by the German army in 1942 and recaptured by Soviet troops in 1943; regarded by many as the key battle of the European war

Battle of the Bulge last major Axis counteroffensive in December 1944 against the Allied forces in western Europe; German troops gained territory in Belgium but were eventually driven back

Battle of the Coral Sea US victory in the Pacific in May 1942; it prevented the Japanese from invading New Guinea and thus isolating Australia

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. Army officer who in 1940 became the first black general in the US Army

braceros Mexican nationals who worked on US farms beginning in 1942 because of the labor shortage during WWII

Burke-Wadsworth Act 1940 law creating the first peacetime draft in US history






closed shop a business or factory whose workers are required to be union members

code talkers Navajos serving in the US Marine Corps who communicated by radio in their native language undecipherable by the enemy

Colonel Fulgencio Batista Cuban dictator (1934-58); his corrupt, authoritarian regime was overthrown by Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) civil rights organization founded in 1942 and committed to using nonviolent techniques such as sit-ins to end segregation






Daniel Ken Inouye Japanese American from Hawai’i who served in the 422nd Regimental Combat Team; he later became a US senator and received the Congressional Medal of Honor

discriminatory neutrality the ability to withhold aid and trade from one nation at war while providing it to another

Dwight David Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during WWII; he directed the D-Day invasion and later became president






Executive Order #9066 1942 order by FDR authorizing the removal of “enemy aliens” from military areas; it was used to isolate Japanese Americans in internment camps






Fair Employment Practices Commission commission established in 1941 to halt discrimination in war production and government

Final Solution German plan to eliminate Jews through mass executions by isolating them in concentration camps; by the end of the war, the Nazis had killed 6 million Jews






G.I. Bill 1944 law passed to provide financial and educational benefits for American veterans after WWII; GI stands for “government issue”

General Assembly assembly of all members of the UN; it debates issues but neither creates nor executes policy

German-Soviet Nonaggression Act 1939; German and the USSR pledged not to fight one another and secretly arranged to divide Poland after Germany conquered it

Good Neighbor Policy US policy toward Latin America that stressed nonintervention begun under Hoover but associated with FDR

Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere Japan’s plan to create and dominate an economic and defensive union in East Asia, using force if necessary

Guadalcanal Island Pacific island secured by US troops in February 1943 in the first major US offensive action in the Pacific






Harry S Truman Democratic senator from Missouri whom FDR selected in 1944 to be vice president; in 1945, on Roosevelt’s death, Truman became president

Hiroshima Japanese target of the first atomic bomb on 6 August 1945

Holocaust mass murder of European Jews and other groups systematically carried out by the Nazis during WWII






internment camps camps to which more than 110,000 Japanese Americans living in the West were moved soon after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor

Issei Japanese immigrant to the US






James F. Byrnes left the Supreme Court to direct the nation’s economy and war production; known as the “Assistant President,” he directed the Office of Economic Stabilization and Office of War Mobilization and later became Truman’s secretary of state

Joint Chiefs of Staff military advisory group to the president that consists of the chiefs of the army, navy, air force, and marine corps; General George C. Marshall served in this position during WWII






Lend-Lease Act 1941 law providing that any country whose security was vital to US interests could receive arms and equipment by sale, transfer, or lease from the US






Manhattan Project secret scientific research effort begun in 1941 to develop an atomic bomb; much of the research was done in a secret community of scientists and workers in TN

Midway Island strategically located Pacific island that the Japanese navy tried to capture in June 1942; warned about Japanese plans by US naval intelligence, American forces repulsed the attack and inflicted heavy losses on Japanese planes and carriers






Nagasaki Japanese target of the second atomic bomb on 9 August 1945

nationalize to convert and industry or enterprise from private to government ownership and control

Neutrality Act of 1935 First Neutrality Act; prohibited arms shipments to nations at war and authorizing the president to warn US citizens against traveling on belligerents’ vessels

Neutrality Act of 1937 Third Neutrality Act; required warring nations to pay cash for “nonwar” goods and barring American from sailing on their ships

Neutrality Act of 1939 repealed the arms embargo and authorized cash-and-carry exports of arms and munitions even to belligerent nations

Nisei person born in the US of parents who emigrated from Japan

noncommissioned officers enlisted member of the armed forces who has been promoted to a rank such as corporal or sergeant, conferring leadership over others






Office of Price Administration (OPA) agency established by executive order in 1941 to set prices for critical wartime commodities

Office of War Mobilization umbrella agency used to coordinate the production, procurement, and distribution of civilian and military supplies

Okinawa Pacific island that US troops captured in the spring of 1945 after a grueling battle in which over a quarter-million soldiers and civilians were killed

Operation Overlord D-Day (“designated day”); Allied invasion of Europe on 6 June 1944 across the English Channel to Normandy






pachucos/zoot suiters term that became associated with juvenile delinquents of Mexican-American/Latino heritage; zoot suiters were those wearing the distinctive zoot suit that to many reflected racial or ethnic identity

popular front an organization or government composed of a wide spectrum of political groups; popular fronts were used by the Soviet Union in forming allegedly non-communist governments in Eastern Europe

Potsdam Declaration July 1945 conference declaration demanding Japan’s unconditional surrender

prefabricated manufactured in advance in standard sections that are easy to ship and assemble when and where needed






Rhineland region of western Germany along the Rhine River, under which the terms of the Versailles Treaty was to remain free of troops and military fortifications






Security Council UN executive agency; includes 5 permanent members with veto power (China, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the US) and 6 members selected by the General Assembly for 2-year terms

Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act 1943 law authorizing the government to seize plants in which labor disputes threatened war production; later used to take over the coal mines

statism the concept or practice of placing economic planning and policy under government control






Tehran Conference 1943 meeting in Iran at which FDR, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the invasion of western Europe and considered plans for a new international organization; Stalin also renewed his promise to enter the war against Japan






unilateralism a policy of acting alone, without consultation or agreement of others

United Nations (UN) international organization established in 1945 to maintain peace among nations and foster cooperation in human rights, education, health, welfare, and trade






V-E Day 8 May 1945; official end of the war in Europe following the unconditional surrender of the German armies

Vichy capital of unoccupied France 1940-1942; the Vichy government continued to govern French territories and was sympathetic to the fascists

victory garden small plot cultivated by a patriotic citizen during WWII to supply household food and allow farm production to be used for the war effort






war bond government bonds sold to finance the war effort

Wendell Wilkie business executive and Republican presidential candidate who lost to FDR in 1940; during the campaign, FDR never mentioned his name

Winston Churchill British prime minister through WWII; he was known for his eloquent speeches and his refusal to give into the Nazi threat; voted out of office in July 1945






Yalta 1945 meeting between FDR. Churchill, and Stalin; discussed the final defeat of the Axis and the problems of postwar occupation